Super Singer deserves a thread to acknowledge and appreciate the next generation singers. I have been watching Super Singer 4 almost right from the start. Compared to earlier super singer seasons, I think this super singer already got some really excellent talents right in the audition stage. Normally we see good singers emerging when we see top 15 contestants. Here for the first time (may be I am too early too), I can sense there are some huge talents in the round of 62. Atleast we cannot neglect half of them is itself a great achievement. We also see contestants from age 16 to 61 which I have never witnessed in earlier seasons.

I will start with my most favorite round which is classical round for a group of 22 contestants. Let me try some videos and share to see how much effort they have put in. This round is a one on one. We can see how contestants lose or win by minute margins and we will feel the losers should not exit. Luckily Ananth Vaidyanathan made a stunning gesture that all those who lost by minute margins will go for the next round which is the best turn around in any Super Singer stage especially at the audition stage.

Please post any videos which you like and we can discuss. With his let me start posting my favorite videos from this classical round.

If there is one MSV/TMS song which I have to pick given only a fraction of second, I would pick this. What a gigantic voice TMS has got, which no other singer has got. The tune is so majestic and haunting. Again a tear moment for me hearing this song. Hats off MSV sir for conceiving such a phenomenal beauty. With this hint, we will go to our next video where we have other two great competitors in the name of Narayanan and Tripura Sundari. Crystal clear rendition by Tripura Sundari.

Two great songs from NT films.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

Beautiful song selection again. Poo maalai vaangivanthEn and aadal kalaiyE dEvan thandhathu. Prabhu has got nice baritone voice and brought out the mood very well, yet the flow of rendition could have been more continuous, felt little choppy, but the expres​sion(bhaavam) was very nice, nevertheless nicely sang. Vishwanath having lot of classical background, shows up, but a song is not all about notes, the expression inside it.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

aru padai veedu konda thirumurga by Sai Vignesh. Please hear Devan's comments, I too have the same opinion. He blasted away at his young age. He brought me Seergaazhi sir and Kandan Karunai visuals in front of me. TMS and Seergaazhi were two pillars of strength for films and music which no one can replace. Niranjana's thesulaavuthE is another brilliant song selection and rendition. A rare song became very popular only after these singers took it to stages. What a tough fight! It is tough to judge as they were saying.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

Rajagopal is studying in 11th grade. Hear his vocal prowess at the tender age. I am amazed by this breath control. He chose the right song; vasantha mulla polE. Krishnan's vEdham Nee. Brilliant, brilliant! I am looking forward to his singing in further rounds. My fourth favorite contestant.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

Maadhavi pon mayilaaL and paadariyEn padippariyEn. Ramanathan has got a unique and mature voice for his age. He almost sang to perfection while Deepthi picked the toughest song especially towards the end, the climb is so steep, she managed very well. Bravo! Another two talents to look forward to.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

Not a fan of this programme but watch it mainly to: 1. Gauge the popularity of a song 2. Amateur renditions of Raaja songs often remind me of the awesomeness of the original 3. Raaja-anecdotes by the judges. 4. There is nothing better to watch on thamizh channels.

Agree with V_Sji that this time the quality is remarkably better than the previous seasons. The classical round was gold, they chose some rara Raaja songs too.

Btw really liked the initial auditions, no, not because of the singing/judging etc, but for the stats. Pleasantly surprised that > 50% of the song choices were Raaja's. I mean illaatti mudiyumaa.. Saw 2-3 people sing NEP songs too. But the most popular song (perhaps easy to sing too, which is another reason they chose it) was Ayyayyo Aanandhame.

Thanks Nerd. Yes, lot of Raja songs. After the classical round, there are one or two singers in folk round who were really impressive. First one is Diwakar (Hariyudan Naan fame) who sang ooru vittu ooru vanthu fantastically. Especially when he finished 'kaadhal eedEra paadu enkooda' with flawless sangathis, I was like wow!. Full of energy. No surprise, he is a big IR fan. On the other hand Vikram sang aNNatha aaduraar very nicely, but unfortunately he exited. He sang a wonderful classical song in his previous round (which I am still searching), which made me believe that he has a big round here, but not.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

Surprised to see that the quality is going up!Well, some day they'll reach the Asianet levels...Reg ooru vittu ooru vandhu v/s aNNAththa AduRar - ayyO paridhAbam, simply no comparison. The karagam guy was outstanding small nitpick - Why did Nithyashree mention 'vEdham nee' as KJY "composition"? Is there some poruththnai that she should not pronounce rAsA's name? BTW, like Nerd mentioned, watching these videos makes one appreciate rAsA songs better. Especially the semi-classical ones - real toughies! (Actually tougher than even those from the TMS-SeerkAzhi era it appears).I guess choosing to sing 'pAdaRiyEn' could be quite suicidal KSC's rendering is too fresh in most people's mind and it needs extraordinary skills to finish off cleanly BTW, the vEdham (salangai oli) was done really nice! (OTOH, I'm unimpressed with the 'vEdham nee iniya nAdham nee' fellow...pAvam. Even the percussionist failed in the second saraNam beginning by bringing down the pace, picked up only in the later part)

Good observations app ji! Still a long way to go for them. Regarding vEdham nee I also immediately asked the same question. Might be tongue slip. In folk round, most of them chose kuththu song, thinking folk mean kuththu. Just now we heard shenbagamE shenbagamE. Like that there are tons of folk melodies from IR which no one picked.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

I wanted to post this performance earlier, but I could not find it. This is from an earlier episode. This will be a milestone for all TV channels, especially Vijay TV and for all Super Singer episodes. Mr. AzhagEsan (61 year old) sang couple of TMS/MGR songs with lot of soul in them and garnered lot of applause not only for the judges, but from everyone alike. As they say, when you try then you are half winner already. Likewise the song selection itself is a winner. Energetic TMS/MGR songs even when sung ordinarily, the power in them will automatically make us sing better and better as we move on. This is true only for us who listened/realized TMS years after he sang those melodies. But for a man who grew up with TMS, MGR & NT this should be his daily bread. We can hear that in his performance. One of the most stunning performances, especially for his age. Two delightful songs which brings back those glory days.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

This week it is everlasting songs round. Not quite happy so far with the performances except one or two. Sai Vignesh (17 year old) sang very well again (Wednesday episode from 20:37). The same contestants who did very well in classical round, didn't quite match up in the everlasting songs round. The main reason I think is they have not really listened to the songs very carefully. They sing their own sangathis, in their own styles which takes the interest out. Singing old songs looks easy superficially, but when you start singing you will know the difficulties. As Mr. T L Maharajan states, there is also a weight-age in the voice, bhaavam and the sangathis. If it should be 150 gms, we should not thrust more than that and also not under do it. Especially singing TMS/PBS/AMR/PS songs are not that easy as it looks.

Another strange thing I found is the inconsistency in the judgement of singers. Some who sang poorly got directly selected to go to the next round, while some who sang better than them were brushed aside and given red flag. Classic case is Bharathi (Wednesday episode). It happened not just for a day, it is happening this whole week, which is a sort of setback for the show which didn't have any such major misjudgments so far, according to me. Will try to post today's episode tomorrow where we had Diwakar's superb performance.

Monday episodehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKkGxecYnG0

Tuesday episodehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWzqdExskgk

Wednesday episode

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

konjam Overa thaan pOraanga. I didn't like this round at all. First day unplugged round was horrible, they literally killed all Raja songs. Even that is acceptable, now they were asked to do more than singing (I am not talking about the morning work out), which sets up a very bad precedent. Even if it is for fun (exchanging garlands, swimming while singing et al), it is unacceptable. Is for this reason parents send their kids for singing in a competition? Vijay TV/Super Singer 4/Judges are taking advantage of the contestants, I strongly condemn this round and their activities. Makaps ugly jokes. It can't get lower than this

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

Parvathi - She is brilliant too and she competed in Super Singer Junior too.

Narayanan - He tried his best.

Viswanath - He sang brilliantly. Somehow Sowmya was stone-hearted to give green (as this fellow accidentally commented in earlier round that he used to sing well, but he didn't do well, which irked Sowmya, as it seems he is not supposed to tell that he used to sing well - humility mafias - they don't know where they stand).

Madhumitha - She is a good singer, another one to look forward to.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

app_engine wrote:Watched a few "super singer" episodes on youtube (Vijay TV), where all three judges are from 'mAtRAn thOttam' (one is a malligai, one paruththi and another muLLu)...

While there is clearly a concentrated effort to project non-IR songs, the young contestants - due to whatever reasons - end up choosing an IR song or two in each episode invariably

The episodes were for "drunk" songs and the janaranjaga songs of rAsA got murdered by the participants (& mostly by orchestra too) - moonu mudichchAla muttALA AnEn of AKK, singAri sarakku of KC & thaNNiththotti thEdi vandha of SB. Well, the orchestra did just the starting part prior to 'thaNNiththotti' nicely. That way, right emotional backdrop was provided but the song got killed by the singer.

The surprise pick was 'endhan kaNNil EzhulagangaL' of Guru (horrible orch but singer was not that intolerable).

Despite all the low-q, rAsA songs alone could still be enjoyed - thanks to the mind playing the original along

OTOH, could not stand ANY of the non-IR songs (which are so-so as such and chavattified by the singers / orch in addition) and had to be FFed.

I don't know why they have an old man singing pre-IR songs much worse than every street singer, bathroom singer & non-singer living in TN

avarukku training vERa kudukkuRangaLAm

This time the song selections were horrible. Especially in the last two rounds; western round and college round, may be to please the judges. One fellow was only singing only ARR songs in all the rounds to prove a point. Some song selections cannot prove any singing capabilities. Looks very plain, no variations at all. For example, meendum paLLikku pOgalaam (such a bland song in paLLikkoodam), Columbus (Jeans), maarO maarO (Boys), kaNNum kaNNUm (Thirudaa Thirudaa). Would like to know how singing capabilities are tested with a plain 'leavu leavu leavu puthiya theevu theevu theevu' or 'maarO maarO'.

Some chose some good IR songs, but they could not live upto it it. Soundarya was good in enthan kaNNil EzhulagangaL and even in isaiyil thodanguthamma (tough song, but she got bad comments). One other aspect I observe in this SS4 is, judges unduly praise some mediocre performances and songs to the hilt. They don't even say this song does not have much in it to prove yourself. On the other hand, they claim that as their favorite. On the other hand, there is hardly any comment about IR's genuine compositions and its value.

Another thing I don't like is they expect too much from the singers. In the current (dance attack) round, they expect the singers to dance, if they don't dance they say why didn't you dance. If they dance, they say you lost your breath because of dancing. So amusing to hear their comments. Are these singers going to dance when doing playback singing? Sounds too naive. They also bring other commercial aspects like promoting a film and songs in SS4, which I don't like. Watching mainly for some singers and IR's songs, but not having too much interest.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

For 1-2 seasons now, Super Singer's become intolerable - their 'search' for 'performers' rather than singers is the most annoying/worrisome part - the focus is more on dancing/smiling/glamour etc - I have seen 'Anantji' indicating to some singers while singing to 'smile more' - why?? why should the singer smile? If the song is a happy/cheerful song, then the listeners should smile automatically listening to your singing - why do you have to give us cues? And why should a singer dance - and Srini's comments - thaanga mudiyaadhu -everytime someone sings an IR song, he cleverly diverts attention from praising IR or the composition, his list of tactics (IMO):

1. good singing, I liked your improvisation in the middle, better than original => skipped commenting on the composition (also, slyly and subtlely implying that the original is not the *best* version)2. good singing, but feel varala, 'feel' is more important than virtuosity (eg: Soundarya's Isayil Thodanguthamma) => again relevant/needed comments skipped3. Singing not up to the mark, you have had better days (instead of saying you chose a tough composition, YEnna that will mean he has to comment on the song la )4. Random questions to Anantji immediately after singing is over - Sir, is his voice always like this, I think it is breaking (Sai Saran is his name I think, the kid)5. Generic comments on the performance without getting into specifics (avarukke theriyaadhu nu I guess ), and more importantly, 'this is my advise to all singers' athu ithu nu pEsi mudichuruvaaru

Sujatha and to a lesser extent, Unni also indulge in such tactics, but I get the feeling that Srini is the one who is actively trying to 'erase' IR in that show.

Also, has there ever been an Ilaiyaraaja round in SS, I forget. I believe there was an ARR round some seasons back - Ilaiyaraaja round vecha atha mattum paathuttu I will skip the rest!

Nice post vicks. Yes Soundarya got some bad comments having performed that complex song well. That youngest singer is Sai Vignesh. They are planning to route him based on his voice alone. Excellent singer for his age. They are making him a clown by asking him to dance. Don't worry, there will not be a ILaiyaraaja round, if at all there will be 80's round.

App ji, As I was telling (in twitter), they decided not to talk about Raja, fearing he will get a break, what a childish thought!.

One good thing about Dhanush if you watched yesterday's show. He told what I have been telling about today's hits and popularity. Nowadays hit depends the CD sales on the first few days without even listening to the songs. That's exactly what Dhanush quoted yesterday about that film songs.

_________________Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth - Pablo Picasso

App ji, ippo thaan I saw that '80s Music' Neeya Naana - didn't want to derail the flow of that thread, but Vadivelu solra maadhiri - EnnA Villathanam! Konja Konjamaa Vijay TV is one of the biggest anti-IR groups nu thOnudhu. first time I distinctly got that feeling was here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4BwTwbt8rw8&t=2092

I also added a comment there in that youtube page - if you notice around 35:06 - when Vijay Prakash starts praising IR, DD abruptly cuts him off with 'Suchi kitta kekkalaam' - now I don't think DD is personally a IR hater - I have seen her being moved to tears for Vaanam Thottu Pona group performance last season, and also seemed genuinely humble when asking IR something in Yuvan's Malaysia show, when Kamal made a guest appearance. This leads me to conclude that the gag order comes from someone higher up - someone in Vijay TV - probably the same person who issued that gag order to Kobinath for the Neeya Naana.

It is pretty clear this person is an IR hater, or, involved in ARR's PR machinery (how many times do they keep mentioning and praising ARR in SS -and rigging the game with ARR singers as judges etc.), or most likely, both.

yeah thats true - my sister who is ~ 2 yrs younger to me (I am 25-26) is, as you can guess, an ARR fan. We almost always end up arguing about IR vs ARR, and recently, one of her comments made me conscious of another aspect of this SS - her comment was that in SS, most singers chose IR songs only for melody round, and that hardly anyone 'chose' IR songs for Western/Jazz round (with that abomination of a 'live band' ) - hence IR is good for melodies, but ARR is better all-rounder - and definitely the best choice for modern/western music.